The railway operator is speeding up its land sales program after Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po last month blasted it for not tendering out any sites for three years, hindering the local home supply.

Sources said the residential plot for 1,600 private flats will be first available for expression of interest submissions within this week. This comes six years after the third phase was tendered. Also, it is part of the four projects to be released this year, including two other plots - atop Tai Wai and Yuen Long stations.

Surveyors expect the Lohas Park site to yield a gross floor area of around one million square feet and to cost between HK$2 billion and HK$2.5 billion. This translates to HK$2,000-HK$2,500 per buildable sq ft.

Kenneth Cheung Chor-yin, executive director of Citiland Surveyors, said the new phase of Lohas Park is of good quality and enjoys better views than the previous phases.

Nan Fung Development managing director Donald Choi Wun-hing said the private developer is interested in the plot.

Nan Fung jointly developed the third phase of Lohas Park with Cheung Kong Holdings (0001).

Lai Sun Development (0488) vice president Julian Poon Yui- man said the company will submit an expression of interest as the site sits near a railway station and such sites are getting rarer.

Henderson Land (0012) and Paliburg Holdings (0617) are also keen on joining the process. Tender will be available after the expression of interest submission and developers have to negotiate the profit sharing and land premium with MTR Corp.

The result was a surprise as the former three phases were all developed by Cheung Kong Holdings (0001).

The total investment amount is 10 percent above estimates and that means the selling price can reach HK$11,000 per square foot, said a surveyor.

SHKP deputy managing director Victor Lui Ting said the price is reasonable and the construction is simpler than other MTR projects. Small to mid- sized units will be built, he added.

In the southeast of the Lohas Park MTR station, the 139,964-square-foot phase-four site yields a gross floor area of 1.32 million sq ft. Four blocks from 46 to 55 stories will be built to provide 1,600 units.

SHKP is expected to pay a land premium of HK$2.71 billion, or HK$2,059 per buildable sq ft. That is almost 15 percent lower than the premium paid in the previous three phases, according to tender documents. It also needs to pay another HK$290 million in pre-development costs.

Adding up the land premium and construction costs alone, the flats will be priced at least HK$6,800 psf.

Vincent Cheung Kiu-cho, national director for greater China at Cushman & Wakefield, said projects developed by SHKP tend to price higher than the others in the same district as they are known to be of better quality, thus the ultimate selling price could be as high as above HK$11,000 per sellable square foot.

Le Prestige, the second phase of Lohas Park, is now priced at around HK$8,000 per sellable square foot on average, according to Centaline Property.

Gregory Tam, director of Valuation and Advisory Services at Colliers International, believes that Cheung Kong is conservative about the future market, especially when the government is putting a huge land supply on the market.

MTRC's projects, which carry tender terms like profit sharing, are not the only choice for developers, he added.

The developer of the fourth phase could set the profit-sharing ratio on its own, uncommon for the MTRC, which has tendered few projects in the past year.

The announcement came just a day after bids closed. Only three developers, including Henderson Land Development (0012), submitted tenders. Lohas Park has 14 phases, expected to be completed by 2019.

The site's land premium was about 7 percent below surveyors' estimates. It was also lower than several previous phases amid downturn pressure on the local property sector.

Premiums were set at HK$1.66 billion, or HK$2,044 per square foot, the lowest since Phase 4 which was the subject of bidding in March 2014.

It is also 20 percent lower than the land premium for Phase 9, won by Wheelock (0020) in December, and 28 percent below Phase 8, won by Cheung Kong Property (1113) in October.

"Though the recent market has gradually warmed up, the number of bids is still lower than market expectations considering the lower premium and the good waterfront locations," said Victor Lai Kin-fai, a surveyor at Centaline Property Agency.

The waterfront Phase 10 is located at the south-western corner of Lohas Park, covering a site area of 86,000 square feet. It has an expected total buildable area of as much as 812,000 square feet.

The new residential project would offer 1,170 homes at most in the two residential buildings. It is expected to be completed by 2022.